Biography

born Hartford, Kentucky, June 28, 1841relocated to: Monmouth, Illinois c.1843relocated to: Pella, Iowa c.1848enlisted Union army: May 25, 1861 (Company F, 7th Illinois, infantry)wounded left shoulder @Frederickstown, Missouri, October 8, 1862.Medical discharge: in Pella Iowa, March 22, 1863. (No use of left arm)left Iowa in 1864 with his father's wagon train, but left the train at Austin, Nevada.Moved to Montana in 186S, became a Gambler.Moved to Lamar, Missouri and rejoined family, 1870.Married April 18, 1873 to Nellie Bartlett Ketchum.(Illinois?)Nellie had two children Frank and Hattie, then James and Nellie had two also named Frank and Hattie,1877 Family moved to Temescal, California (near present Lake Elsinore), Wyatt and James moved to Wichita and then Dodge City, Kansas."Jim" was a bartender and Wyatt was a policeman.1879 they were mvited tc Tombstone, Az. Territory, by Virgil Earp, who had been appointed U. S. Deputy Marshal for the Arizona Territory.Brother Morgan also came from Montana.Jim worked in Vogan's Bowling Alley and later at the saloon called "Sampling Room".October 26, 1881, James' three brothers, Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil, with "Doc" Holliday, a dentist, and Gambler, had a shootout near the OK Corral with the "Cowboy gang" consisting of Tom and Frank Laury, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Billy Claiborne. Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank Laury were killed. and Virgil and Morgan were wounded.The Earp family left Tombstone the following year, after much gunplay.Jim went to Shone County Idaho with Wyatt. (Feb 1, 1884),1884 to Eagle City, for mining, and opened the White Elephant Saloon. after Sept. 1884 they were gone, eventually ending up in San Bernardino, Ca. where Jim drove a "Hack". He then opened the "Club ExchangeSaloon" in San Bernardino.January 22, 1887, Nellie Dies.Jim leaves for Missoula and Helena Montana, and later San Francisco, as a Gambler.He returned to San Bernardino, during the early 1900s,Ill health debilitated him and he died in Los Angeles, January 25, 1926, and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, in San Bernardino.